Motivating employees is an important task in leadership

Introduction

When we talk about motivation, it is hard to avoid Maslow and Herzberg, but today, more is needed. Understand what motivates your employees – and yourself.

In this article, you will learn

    • What motivates the employees?
    • The Career Model – understanding your employees' motivation
    • Maslow's Motivation Theory
    • Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory

By Pia Fuglsang Bach, CfL, October 2020

Let’s face it: Do you already have an idea that your first leadership role is just the first step in a long series where you gradually climb the ladder? Or do you see the leadership role as something to try out before moving on – or perhaps returning to that specialty you truly are passionate about?

Few can answer definitively, and the best part is that you can have several different preferences – and what motivates you most right now may change in the future.

As a leader, you must know your own motivational factors, but to succeed, it is equally important to understand what motivates your employees.

One of the most important disciplines in personnel management is motivating employees. If your team is unmotivated, at best, it will result in lower performance than expected; at worst, you may experience conflicts, stress, declining engagement, and high employee turnover.

What motivates employees?

A common beginner’s mistake is to base motivation solely on what motivates you personally. This often leads to frustration—if, for the 117th time, you push for a report that your employee is still nitpicking over, unwilling to let go until every last detail is perfect.

We are simply different, and to understand what is at stake, this article presents three well-established tools and theories on motivation and how you can use them to motivate your employees.

Read also: Your Employees Must Be Motivated Differently

The Career Model – understanding your employees' motivation

One tool to understand what specifically creates motivation and engagement for each employee is the Career Model. This development tool is ideal to use as part of an annual performance review, but you can also apply it in team building and talent programs.

In short, the Career Model deals with four basic categories, each motivated by different factors:

  • Experts: Motivated by deep professional engagement, delivering quality, and having security and stability.
  • Linears: Motivated by the ability to perform, achieve results, and have formal authority and responsibility.
  • Expanding: Motivated by development – both personal and organizational – and by being involved and collaborating across disciplines.
  • Episodic: Motivated by variety, change, independence, and new experiences.

As individuals, we possess motivational factors from all four categories—but in varying degrees. If you are predominantly linear and assume the same motivational factors for your employees, it may backfire, especially compared to the experts.

The article continues below the box, where you can read about Maslow and Herzberg.

Test yourself and your employees

The Career Model ensures quality in the annual performance review and can be used to retain key personnel by creating talent and competence development programs. It might be tempting to simply grab a test, but that is not sufficient.

Personality tests must be used thoughtfully, the tools must be validated, and they can never stand alone. If you—or your HR department—wish to work with the Career Model, certification is required. Read more about certification in the Career Model here.

Maslow's Motivation Theory

The Career Model is a development tool that allows everyone to move between categories. There are few other tools that open up this perspective, which is why the Career Model provides a unique framework for understanding what creates motivation – both for yourself and your employees.

When we talk about motivation, it is hard to avoid Maslow and Herzberg, and there is no shame in knowing the classics.

You have probably heard of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Let’s revisit it:

  1. Physiological needs: The basic needs such as water, food, and shelter.
  2. Safety needs: The need to feel secure and experience stability.
  3. Social needs: The need to be with other people, to have friendships and emotionally based relationships.
  4. Esteem needs: The need to feel valuable, competent, and to gain respect from others.
  5. Self-actualization: The need to use one’s abilities, express creativity, and focus on personal development.

Maslow’s assertion is that as human beings, we will always strive to fulfill our needs, and they must be met from the bottom up. You must satisfy the basic needs (food, water, warmth, etc.) before you can address the need for physical and social security.

The reason it is interesting to mention Maslow is that his theory views the workplace as one of the most important places where we can have our needs met.

When it comes to self-actualization and the need to feel competent and recognized, the outcome is almost self-evident, but as a leader, it is also important to keep the lower levels in mind.

For many employees, safety needs relate to experiencing security and stability at work, and several studies have documented that good relationships with colleagues are among the greatest motivational factors.

Read more about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs here

Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory

Another classic theory of motivation comes from American business psychologist Frederick Herzberg, who in the 1950s and 1960s investigated job satisfaction and employee well-being.

The result was his famous Two-Factor Theory, which distinguishes between the factors that create job satisfaction (motivators) and those that can cause dissatisfaction (hygiene factors).

Motivators

  • Job content
  • Opportunities for achievement
  • Responsibility
  • Influence
  • Recognition
  • Personal development opportunities
  • Promotion prospects

Hygiene factors

  • Salary
  • Working hours
  • Benefits
  • Social relationships
  • Information
  • Physical working conditions
  • Safety and security

Factors that create dissatisfaction do not automatically lead to satisfaction when improved – they must be adequate to prevent dissatisfaction. To create satisfaction, you must focus on the motivators.

Herzberg presented his Two-Factor Theory in a 1969 article titled “Once More: How Do You Motivate Employees?”, and the theory has since greatly influenced how leaders today work with employee motivation.

As a leader, there is a wide gap between both Maslow and Herzberg and the day-to-day operations; however, the next time you cannot, for instance, meet an employee’s request for more benefits, remember that you can motivate by turning other knobs.